Sara Metz, Kindergarten Teacher at Explore Elementary in Thornton, Colorado, gives us a window into her purposeful planning and delivery of a Close Read-Aloud. She takes us through her process of analyzing the curriculum's Close Read-Aloud guide, planning based upon the needs of her students, and responding in the moment. We see Sara analyze student work and plan for future instruction. This video is part of the "Behind the Practice" series and is also a companion to the two-part video series Close Read-Aloud in the Primary Grades, which features Sara and her students in action.

This video shows Sarah Mitchell (Instructional Coach), Katie Benton (2nd Grade Teacher) and Brenna Schneider (Kindergarten Teacher), thinking about their work implementing the K-2 Skills Block at Lead Academy.  The coach and teachers describe the importance of the Skills Block, and how to use the phases and micro-phases to most strategically group students and plan differentiated activities. The video addresses common questions and challenges teachers face when implementing this component of the EL Education Language Arts curriculum at grades K-2, in particular how to make most strategic use of the differentiated small group time.

This is the first video in a two-part series that features Sara Metz and her Kindergarten class at Explore Elementary in Thornton, Colorado. Using the EL Education Language Arts Curriculum and its Close Read-Aloud guide, Sara and her students engage in analysis of the text, Come On, Rain!, as part of a module on the topic of weather. Sara strikes a balance of rigor and joy as she guides her students through a carefully crafted sequence of text-dependent questions driving toward a focus question, total participation techniques to engage all learners, and a culminating task. To hear Sara describe her process, watch the companion video, Behind the Practice: Close Read-Aloud in the Primary Grades with Sara Metz.

This is the second video in a two-part series that features Sara Metz and her Kindergarten class at Explore Elementary in Thornton, Colorado. Using the EL Education Language Arts Curriculum and its Close Read-Aloud guide, Sara and her students engage in analysis of the text, Come On, Rain!, as part of a module on the topic of weather. Sara strikes a balance of rigor and joy as she guides her students through a carefully crafted sequence of text-dependent questions driving toward a focus question, total participation techniques to engage all learners, and a culminating task. To hear Sara describe her process, watch the companion video, Behind the Practice: Close Read-Aloud in the Primary Grades with Sara Metz.

This video shows the K-2 Skills block in action in Brenna Schneider and Katie Benton's Kindergarten and Second Grade classrooms at Lead Academy in Greenville, South Carolina.  It shows how the teachers prepare, assess and group students, select and manage materials, and foster students' self-management and smooth transitions during differentiated small group time. The video addresses common questions and challenges teachers face when implementing this component of the EL Education Language Arts curriculum at grades K-2, in particular how to make most strategic use of the differentiated small group time.

The K-2 Sample Schedules are sample schedules that outline advantages and considerations, to give leaders ideas about how to incorporate EL Education's K-2 Language Arts Curriculum (3 hours daily for Grades K-2) into a school schedule. Shows options for school days with 7, 6.5, and 6 hours of daily instruction. Also addresses significant modifications for a half-day kindergarten context.

This video shows primary students using Chaining, an instructional practice found in the K-2 Reading Foundations Skills Block. This instruction practice gives students targeted instruction for analyzing and decoding words with particular spelling patterns. One grapheme is changed in each successive word, and students analyze the first word to determine how it has changed as they decode the next word. The teacher gives and students decode the first word. After decoding each of the words in the chain, the teacher has students spell the words from memory, which reinforces letter-sound connections and lets the teacher check for understanding. There are optional extensions. This instructional practice is used in Kindergarten and 1st grade.

This video shows 1st graders participating in the end of cycle reading and spelling assessment with their teacher in our K-2 Reading Foundations Skills Block. It specifically shows the spelling portion. The teacher administers the assessment with a small group, evaluates their responses, and confers with each student to set an individual goal. End of cycle assessments are used throughout Kindergarten-2nd grade, typically weekly.

This video shows 1st graders experiencing "Engagement Text to Decodables," an instructional practice found in the K- Reading Foundations Skills Block, that engages students in a read-aloud of an engaging complex text before they work with a decodable text on the same topic. First the teacher reads the engagement text aloud, and may ask optional comprehension questions. Then students analyze high frequency words in the engagement text they likely would not be able to decode. Next students work with a partner to search for those same high frequency words in the decodable text. They then read the entire text with a partner to develop automaticity with the new high frequency words and to apply the letter-sound patterns they have already learned. Students then add the new high frequency words to the Word Wall. Finally, students reflect on their learning. This instructional practice is used in Kindergarten (starting in Cycle 13) and throughout 1st and 2nd grades.

This video shows 1st graders using Interactive Writing, an instructional practice in the K-2 Reading Foundations Skills Block that helps students apply their growing knowledge of letter-sound connections to write sentences using familiar spelling patterns and high frequency words in a shared sentence. First, the teacher reads aloud an intentionally designed sentence. Students tap out each word. Then students analyze the sounds in each word. Finally they reread the completed sentence. This instructional practice is used (with slight variations) in kindergarten, 1st, and 2nd grades.

This video shows 1st graders using Phonemic Blending and Segmentation, an instructional practice in the K-2 Reading Foundations Skills Block that helps them understand letter-sound combinations and how that helps them read and spell words. Students first tap out the sounds in a word on their fingers, then blend the sounds together. Next, they review what each sound looks and feels like in the mouth (“articulatory gestures”). Finally, they analyze the oral and auditory connections in the word they began with. This instructional practice is used in both Kindergarten and 1st grade.

This video demonstrates how Common Core literacy standards can come to life naturally, thoughtfully and joyfully for kindergartners, who engage in real-world research in their own school. Through interviewing school staff members, the kindergarteners come to understand their contributions to the school and the meaning of community, and create beautiful informational cards to honor staff.